Billet scarfing method and apparatus



1946- J. L. ANDERSON 0 2,409,654

1 BILLET SCARFING METHOD AND APPARATUS Original Fild Oct. 50,1941 2 Sheets-Sheet l JAMES L. ANDERSON g wz/ww Oct. 22, 1 946. J. L. ANDERSCN 2,409,654

BILLET SCARFING METHOD AND APPkRATUS Original Filed 001;. 30, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR JAMES L. ANDERSON ATTORNEY) n'lllm m-llllllll Patented Oct. 22, 1946 BILLET SCARFING METHOD AND Y APPARATUS James L. Anderson, Closter, N. J., assignor to Air Reduction Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York T'Original application October 30, 1941, Serial No.

. 417,086, now Patent No. 2,351,653, datedJune. 20, 1944. Divided and this application October 12, 1943,, Serial No. 505,986

This application is a division of my application, Serial No. 417,086, filed October 30, 1941, for Billet scarfing apparatus, now Patent No. 2,351,653, issued June 20, 1944.

The invention relates to improvements in the scarfing of billets, or other metal bodies, by means of oxygen streams directed at an angle against a surface of the billet while the surface metal is heated to ignition temperature. The oxygen streams remove surface metal from the billet in a manner Well understood in the art.

The above-mentioned parent application discloses and claims improved scarfing apparatus in which the scarflng torches are capable of following irregularities in the surface of the billet or other work-piece. It also discloses a novel form of scarfing torch having a tip of the block type and means for directing streams of air between the tip block and the billet and also downwardly into the region of the preheating flames for the purpose hereinafter described. It is the latter feature, 1. e., the torch block and the air supply means, as well as an improved method of billet-scarring which may be carried out by apparatus having such a torch block, that constitute the claimed subject matter of the present application.

Although the invention is described in connection with the scarfing or surfacing of billets, it will be understood that it can be applied to other work-pieces and that billets are merely illustrative of the kind of work-pieces for which the invention is intended.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is an enlarged view of one of the torches; and

Fig. 2 is a sectional View on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Figs. 1 and 2 show one of the torch elements 24 which may be used in carrying out the method of the invention. Such torch elements comprise a block tip 51 with a row of oxygen jet orifices 58 in its bottom face, and each orifice 58 has a number of preheating jet orifices 59 above it. Fig. 2 shows an oxygen jet 5B and preheating jet 59. A shoe B in connected with the tip 51 by screws 6|. The shoe 60 is preferably made of steel and may be hard-faced to reduce wear. The purpose of the shoe 60 is to keep the brass tip block 51 from touching the hot billet, because the brass would wear away very rapidly, and the torch might be heated excessively by contact with the billet.

The shoe 60 is cooled by jets of air that issue from orifices at spaced points along the length Claims. (01.148-9) of a header 62. These jets of air are blown throughthe space between the tip and shoe in the direction indicated by arrows in Fig. 7 and the volume of air is insufficient to interfere with the operation of the scarfing jets 58. A second header 64 supplies compressed air to aid the combustion of the preheating flames 59'.

The scarfing operation is made more efficient, thatis, less oxygen is required to do the same scarfing, by having the preheating jets 59' above, and only above, the oxygen scarfing jets 58'. Probably the products of combustion of preheating flames under the scarfing jets flow between the scarfing jets and the surface of the Workpiece so that the scarfing oxygen does not come into immediate contact with the work, or the dilution of the lower part of the oxygen streams with products of combustion of the preheating flames under the oxygen streams reduces the efficiency of the scarfing operation. It is therefore a feature of this invention that all of the pre-heating flames are above the scarfing jets.

I claim: 1. The method of scarflng a surface of a workpiece by means of a scarfing torch, which method comprises directing against such surface a row of oxygen streams extending crosswise thereof, causing relative movement of the oxygen streams and work-piece in the direction of the length of the work-piece, directing preheating flames downwardly at an angle to the surface of the work-piece but exclusively from above the oxygen streams, blowing a stream of air between the torch and the work-piece toward the oxygen streams, and aiding combustion of the preheating flames by blowing other streams of air downwardly toward and onto the preheating flames prior to contact of the preheating flames with the work.

2. The method of scarfing a surface of a workpiece, which method comprises directing against such surface a row of oxygen streams extending crosswise thereof, causing relative movement of the oxygen streams and work-piece in the direction of the length of the Work-piece, directing preheating flames downwardly at an angle to the surface of the work-piece but exclusively from above the oxygen streams, and aiding combustion of the preheating flames by blowing streams of air downwardly toward and onto the preheating flames prior to contact of the preheating flames with the work.

3. In a billet scarfing machine, a torch block having a face provided with a series of orifices for directing scarfing jets of oxygen against a surface of the billet, said face of the block having additional orifices positioned solely above the first-named orifices for directing preheating flames against said surface of the billet, means for blowing a stream of air between the torch block and the billet, and means for blowing other streams of air downwardly toward and onto the preheating flames at such angle that said other streams, when the torch is in normal operating position, meet the preheating flames prior to contact of the preheating flameswith the work.

4. In a billet scarfing machine, a torch block having a face provided with a series of orifices for directing scarfing jets of oxygen. against a surface of the billet, said face; of the block. having additional orifices positioned solely above the first-named orifices for directing preheating flames against said surface of the billet, and means for blowing streams of air downwardly toward and onto the preheating flames at such angle that said other streams, when the torch is 4 in normal operating position, meet the preheating flames prior to contact of the preheating flames with the work. v

5, In a billet scarflng machine, a torch block having a face provided with a series of orifices for directing scarfing jets of oxygen against a surface of the billet, said face of the block having additional orifices positioned solely above the first-named orifices for directing preheating flames against said surface of the billet, means for blowingistreams of air downwardly toward and onto the preheating flames, a shoe carried by the torch block, and means for blowing a stream of air through the space between the torch block and the shoe at such angle that said other streams, when the torch is in normal operating position, meet the preheating flames prior to contact of the preheating flames with the work.

JAMES L. ANDERSON. 

